India will emerge "victorious" from the "war" against Covid-19.
With very pugnacious words, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, criticized for his management of the pandemic in the second most populous country on the planet, was confident: on Monday, India reported 100,636 contaminations in 24 hours, after 120,529 on Saturday, a "low" level that it had not reached since April 6 before being seized by a catastrophic epidemic wave.
Reassured by the drop in contamination for several weeks, New Delhi and Bombay began to lift the restriction measures.
“We must continue to protect ourselves from infections and get the economy back on track,” Delhi Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.
Under an even / odd rule, some businesses and malls have reopened after weeks of closure.
The Indian capital's metro operates at 50% of its capacity.
The territory of Delhi, which has 18 million inhabitants and the Indian capital New Delhi, had locked the population on April 19;
only the construction sector was authorized to reopen a week ago.
In Bombay, India's economic heartbeat, shopping centers are reopening although subject to restrictions.
Public buses recirculate, they can only accommodate more passengers than the number of seats, and wearing a mask is mandatory on board.
The disease continues to spread in rural areas
In other cities of Maharashtra, cities where the number of cases is lower, such as Nagpur and Aurangabad, businesses are open without a specific gauge.
"This is a step in the right direction," said Rajendra Kalkar, manager of three "Phoenix Mills" shopping centers in this state, the richest in the country.
Experts say while the crisis eases in Delhi, Bombay and other major cities, the disease continues to spread to rural areas and some southern states. Some accuse the confinements, decided locally, of having pushed back to their villages of origin workers who could no longer meet their needs in overcrowded metropolises.
Vaccination is still extremely slow, although seven factories produce it. To the shortage are added the quarrels between the federal government and those of the regional states, and the cost, inaccessible to many Indians. In his televised address, Modi pledged free vaccines, continuing to reserve a quarter of the stocks for private health facilities. Currently, only about 180 million people, or 14% of the population, have received a dose of the vaccine and 45 million both, or 3.4%.